Mabble Rabble: 2024

31 December 2024

30 December 2024

Transformational GenAI Projects

GenAI Trends 2025

More Advancements and Use of AI Agents
Democratization of AI
Importance of AI Safety and Ethics
Integration of AI into Everyday Life
Evolution of AI Models
Multimodal Advancements
Divergence for Parallelization and Ensemble of SLM
Importance of Data Quality and Privacy
Growing Scientific Discovery Through AI
AI Literacy
Evolution of AI Landscape
More use of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Divergence and exploration into Cognitive Science
Advancements in Inference and Orchestration
Divergence of AI and Quantum Computing
Intelligent Personalization
AI-Native Businesses
More Advancements in Explainable AI
Evolution of AI in Cybersecurity and Crytocurrency
Improved Q/A Methods Beyond Prompt Engineering
More Advancements in Integration between Knowledge Graphs and LLM/SLMs
More Efficient Methods in Vector Search
More Advancements in Graph Deep Learning
More Advancements in Computer Vision for Media

29 December 2024

Why Indians make the worst hires?

Once you hire an Indian, they will try to get you to hire more Indians, work with more Indians, and try to push for Indian outsourcing
An Indian manager will have a preference for Indians, lots of biases
Over time your diversity efforts will get a massive setback
They generally tend to follow a caste system mindset so brewing ground for racism, prejudice, and discrimination and this will become an issue within teams but also in recruitment/human resources practice. Also, that BJP mentality seems to be spreading across organizations. Likely will be looked over for promotions, increments, recruitment in place of an Indian.
Indians don't mingle, assimilate, or interact much with other groups of people
Interviews become very bookish, like sitting in a classroom
They can't think outside the box
They have a tendency of replicating what others have done
Poor sense of creativity
Lower salaries in most cases here equates to poor quality of work
They will be quick to dismiss "no, that cannot be done" if they have not seen someone else do it before
They need a lot of hand-holding, mentoring, training, and micromanagement
Ordinarily, implementations will be buggy and not meet requirements
Indian managers drive a lot of politics, nepotism, low salaries, tend to be rude, and provide for a bad work life balance
Lots of unnecessary "yes, sir", "no, sir"
Their judgement of correctness is measured in terms of how other people and organizations are doing things
That weird smell in the office
Lots of bad practices
Nothing ever gets done properly
They say they can do everything, but nothing is done correctly
They will want everything for free
They are not pragmatic, they will follow trends and come with a crowd follower mentality
They are generally unwilling to challenge the status quo so bad things stay the same
They are unwilling to take the initiative, be proactive
They also tend to take credit for other people's work
Lots of cultural favortism in workplace
Indian managers and employees drive a toxic work culture
Many tend to be incompetent, do not deliver on what is on their resume, nor a reflection of their experience
They have degrees but practically struggle with inexperience
Communication skills tend to be poor and at times difficult
Lots of lies and deception to cover things up
Questionable sense of work ethics
Overtime your customer service and product quality will degrade

This is not to say you should stop hiring Indians. Some obviously are good but those tend to be few and far between. However, recruitment should always be fair and give everyone an equal opportunity.

Despite of sanctions, Russia is expected to show continued economic growth in 2025. But, this growth may be slower with GDP forecast of between 0.5% and even 2.5%. The Russian economy is resilient and adaptable. This is as a result of many factors.

Sanctions: Imposed by western countries will continue to impact economy especially in energy and financial sectors.
Geopolitical Risks: Ukraine conflict and tensions with NATO will create uncertainty and risks
Commodity Prices: Dependence on global commodity prices as a major exporter of oil and gas. Fluctuations in prices to effect the economic growth.
Domestic Policies: Economic strategy on monetary and fiscal policy will also have an impact.

Black in Metaphorical Language

The use of term 'Black' needs to stop in metaphorical linguistics because it associates the color with bad and 'White' normally is assumed as good. This forms into a harmful and racist trope. However, the roots of such metaphors is historical in context.

Historical: The roots are in association with slavery and colonialism. White Europeans associated black with darkness, evil, savagery. They associated white with purity, goodness, and civilization. This was a way to justify further enslavement and oppression of Black people.

Cultural Reinforcement: The association is reinforced in popular culture, literature, and language.

Impact: Such harmful stereotypes create a lasting impact on society which contributes to mindset of people and the dehumanization and discrimination of Black people. Furthermore, it perpetuates negative stereotypes and prejudice.

Challenge Stereotype: Important to recognize such language use as harmful and call it out, being mindful, and promote positive representations of people in society.

Examples of Metaphors:

Black lists and White lists
Pot calling the kettle black
Black sheep
Black humor
Black Friday
Black mood
Black market
Black magic
Black death
Black box

28 December 2024

Prominent Health and Safety Standards in World

ISO 45001
ILO
European Union Directive
OSHA
HSE UK
OHSA
ANSI
NFPA
ANSI Z10
AS/NZS 4801

How do Bitcoin Wallets Work In Simple Terms?

Bitcoin Wallet: Digital vault for Bitcoin which stores the keys to bitcoins that allow you to manage and access. A wallet is a keychain and the Bitcoin like scattered houses in the world. The keys on the keychain unlock those houses. There are two types of keys: Public and Private. Public key is the address to house which is shareable. Private key is the secret key that only you know to prove ownership and authorization.

How it works?

Generate Keys when you create Bitcoin wallet with both public and private keys
Receive Bitcoin by sharing your public key
Sending Bitcoin by using your private key
Back up your wallets for access recoverability

Bitcoin Wallet

Resources on AI Ethics

Resources on Laziness and Procrastination

Cognitive Science Resources

Dahiya Doctrine and Hannibal Directive

Hannibal Directive:

Focus: To prevent capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces
Application: Authorizes use of force, including lethal force against captured soldiers to avoid abduction
Goal: Prevent capture of soldiers
Targets: Captured soldiers
Legality: International law violation
Issue: In most cases, it violates international humanitarian law and principle of proportionality

Dahiya Doctrine:

Focus: Deterrence of enemy attacks through deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure to inflict maximum civilian casualties
Application: Disproportionate force against civilian areas and infrastructure
Goal: Deter attacks and inflict collective punishment
Targets: Civilians and infrastructure
Legality: Essentially, a war crime
Issue: In most cases, this is considered a war crime by human rights organizations and international law

Why is it bad to have role models?

Initially, they can be a great source of inspiration and guidance. But, there is a limit to how much inspiration and guidance you want from them compared to your own individual uniqueness. Often the role model can limit your creativity for growth, your capacity to make mistakes, to learn from those mistakes, experience life, and define your own uniqueness. End of the day, role models are also people, they aren't perfect. Healthier option is to create your own unique path through a multitude of inspirations and experiences.

Unrealistic Expectations: Looking up to someone can lead to unrealistic expectations of yourself that leads to disappointing outcome when you don't achieve the same level of success and perfection
Limited Perspective: If you focus too much on one role model this may limit perspectives for growth and prevent you from developing your unique self and prevent you from exploring your own talents and interests
Disappointment: When the role model makes a mistake or falls short of your ideals, it can be disheartening to your self-esteem
Pressure to Conform: Feeling pressure to emulate can stifle individuality and prevent you from developing your authentic self
False Sense of Intimacy: Easy to feel a false sense of connection to the role model you look up to, but in the end it is likely only a very small glimpse of their life.

Leave Azure Now

Why are you still using Azure? Do you feel concern for the costs, the complex pricing, confusing interface, the frequent service disruptions, the excessive vendor lock-in, the lack of reliable services and poor quality on the platform, the inconsistent and difficult to navigate documentation, frustration with integration, poor support where everything turns into a sales pitch, and an endless cycle of issues? The following cloud providers could be better options that will save you sleepless nights.

AWS
GCP
Digital Ocean

Why is Azure so Bad?

Complex Pricing: Pricing model can be intricate and difficult to understand
Confusing Interface: Portal can be overwhelming with a lack of intuitive navigation
Service Disruptions: Endless cycle of service outages that impact businesses
Vendor Lock-in: Tight integration with Microsoft products makes it difficult to migrate and even re-design cloud agnostic or hybrid solutions
High Costs: More expensive than AWS, Digital Ocean, or GCP across many services
Integration Challenges: Complexity in integrating with on-premise, open source, and third-party applications
Terrible Services: Badly designed services across the entire platform that just don't integrate well, very brittle infrastructure that leads to issues in security, orchestration and workflow, poor use of best practices and patterns, the entire platform basically lacks the cloud fundamentals
Dodgy and Poor Support: The support is very dodgy where everything is a sales pitch to get you to use more of Microsoft products, even their help and documentation have a significant bias, clueless support, support teams are not very practically knowledgeable but act more like sales engineers, leads to an endless cycle of issues, in most cases you will never get your original support query answered but re-directed to a documentation that is likely outdated, inconsistent, or doesn't answer the query, you will never get a straight answer to anything, support teams almost sound horrified when you mention anything to do with Linux

Best areas for Entrepreneurs

Best areas is largely subjective based on specific industry, business model, and personal preferences. In most cases, it depends on your needs and goals. Consider also towards industry focus, cost of living, and access to resources. However, in terms of general factors like ease of doing business, access to capital, talent pool, and overall entrepreneurial ecosystem, there are a few hot spots.

Silicon Valley (California) - USA: established tech startups, venture capital, and highly skilled workforce
New York City (New York) - USA: global financial hub with a diverse economy and strong entrepreneurial culture
Austin (Texas) - USA: growing tech scene with lower cost of living than California
London (UK): a financial center of the world with diverse talent pool
Berlin (Germany): a major hub for tech startups and digital nomads, affordable and creative scene
Amsterdam (Netherlands): open environment for entrepreneurs that focus on sustainability and innovation
Singapore: advanced business environment with focus on innovation and technology
Hong Kong: global financial center with access to asian markets
Dubai (UAE): fast developing city, ambitious plans for global innovation hub
Toronto (Canada): growing tech scene with strong focus for AI and fintech
Vancouver (Canada): vibrant with supportive ecosystem and a high quality of life
Dublin (Ireland): rapidly growing tech scene in software and gaming
Stockholm (Sweden): strong focus on sustainability and green technology
Seoul (South Korea): rapidly growing tech scene in mobile and gaming

Why is quality of Whole Foods so poor?

Supply Chain Issues: disruptions in food supply that leads to less fresh produce and inconsistencies on availability
Amazon Acquisition: shift in focus for greater efficiency and cost-cutting which has a negative impact on quality
Increased Competition: increase in competition from other grocery stores who also offer organic and natural options that leads to pressure to lower quality for lower prices
Customer Feedback: increase in negative customer feedback on quality of food especially produce
Internal Issues: Reports indicate employee morale is low, poor training initiatives, cracks in leadership, and mismanagement

26 December 2024

Bad Things About Christmas Holidays

Many shops are closed
Turns into a ghost town
People are all in a hurry to get to somewhere
You look like a weirdo walking on the streets because everyone else is at home for the holidays
There is nothing good on TV
All the sales look like scams
The constant bombardment of advertising and pressure to buy something
Expensive time of the year that leads up to debt and stress for many
Can lead to a lot of family drama from disagreements, arguments, to uncomfortable situations
The ones that are single are left all alone, for some it can be the loneliest time of the year
Pressure to create the most perfect christmas
Reality of christmas tends to fall short with disappointments
Overindulgence of food and drink leads to sickness, accidents, and bad habits
Lack of sunlight and no snow can make many feel dull and emotionless in the winter season
Lots of disruptions to routine
Lots of traffic congestion on the roads and many travel delays
Huge environmental impact
That weird feeling when you have a decorated tree stuck in the house when it should be outside
When that turkey is badly cooked and gives you the taste of dry, flavorless, gamey, sour, and metallic all in one
Leads to post-christmas blues with all the letdown, sadness, and depression
It makes everyone focus on materialism
Crime rate sky rockets across cities
Work schedules are disrupted
Meeting new family members that you never knew existed, hadn't seen in ages, and are then in a situation to explain why you haven't seen them for so long
That feeling of stuffiness and chaos when there is so much going on in one household
Everyone is interested in taking photos with you
Those same christmas songs keep repeating over and over and over again
Some one always has to have that smelly sock by the fireplace
When you don't get the gift you wanted but the one you explicitly said you didn't want
When someone gives you a bunch of gift cards because they couldn't be bothered to buy you a present
When someone gives you the same gift you gave them last christmas
When you are stuck opening that ugly looking insane gift that you hate in front of the family like it was the best gift you ever got
Finding a parking space can suddenly take a very long time
When you dread that electricity bill
Christmas movies are bad
Becomes a breakup season for many with all the commotion, stress, and pressure
Lots of random hookups because everyone is so drunk
People get that unusual sense of motivation to cheat on their spouses
Those awkward office parties where people are overly social especially ones you never knew suddenly start showing interest in you
Having to continue that lie about santa so someone's child won't feel miserable

Gitcoin

Eth Limo

How Dramas Achieve Emotional Engagement?

Drama shows are basically idealized versions of reality that are designed for entertainment value and emotional engagement. This is how they achieve engagement.

Exaggeration for Effect: Amplification of emotions, conflicts, and plots to create a captivating narrative. The heightened sense of emotions create larger-than-life characters with over dramatized coincidences.
Simplified Conflicts: While real life problems are more complex, dramas depict simplified versions of conflicts and resolutions in order for the audience to find it easier to follow and understand.
Focus on Entertainment: Focus is on entertainment which prioritizes engaging storylines, memorable characters, satisfactory plot lines and resolutions.
Time Constraints: Storylines are fast paced due to limited budgets with a timeframe.
Idealized Portrayals: Furthermore, idealized versions of relationships, careers, lifestyles add to the dreamy but life-like feel to dramas.
Creative License: There is creative freedom to shape the narrative and character dynamics to articulate the story even if it veers away from reality.

What is a Thought Chain?

Chain of Thought Prompting (AI):

Pattern to improve reasoning and problem-solving in LLMs
Rather than directly asking for an answer the prompting provides a way to think through the problem step-by-step as an outlined process
Helps model breakdown complex tasks into smaller steps towards a more accurate result

Stream of Consciousness (Psychology):

Psychological phenomenon where thoughts and ideas flow freely and unfiltered with no care for grammatical or logical structure
The capture of raw unedited flow of consciousness as it happens

A Series of Connected Thoughts (General):

Series of connected thoughts or ideas that follow a certain reasoning or association
Something that may start as a memory, then an emotion, then a reflection of past experience

Notion, Thought, and Concept

Notion:

General idea or belief
Vaguely defined impression of a fleeting idea and more subjective
Sparks of ideas

Thought:

Mental process of reasoning
Involves a conscious or unconscious process
Involves ideas, images, feelings
Mental processes that fuel notions

Concept:

General idea or understanding
Defined and objective
Involves past experience or knowledge
Fully formed, well-defined ideas resulting from thoughts

24 December 2024

Evolution of Narrative Fiction

Physical Intelligence

Generalist Robot

22 December 2024

Top AI, NLP, and KG Influencers on Web

Andrew Ng
Lex Fridman
Yann LeCun
Fei-Fei Li
Gary Marcus
Timmit Gebru
Andrej Karpathy
Demis Hassabis
Geoffrey Hinton
Yoshua Bengio
Ian Goodfellow
Cassie Kozyrkov
Meredith Whittaker
Kai-Fu Lee
Sebastian Ruder
Yoav Goldberg
Emily M. Bender
Chris Manning
Richard Socher
Kyunghyun Cho
Danny Britz
Evan Jones
Angelica Lim
Stuart Russell
Hugging Face Team
Oriol Vinyals
Quoc Le
Matthew Mayo
Ines Montani
Ali Rahimi
Been Kim
Mark Needham
Kelly Sommers
Jessica Kerr
Bonnie Zhang
Daniel Garijo
Amy E Hodler
Margaret Mitchell
Eliezer Yudkowsky
Steven Pinker
Daniel Kahneman

Faster Time To Market Programming Languages

Python: clear syntax, extensive libraries, and wide range of frameworks for rapid prototyping and development
Javascript: ubiquitous language on the web with vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks
Dart: hot reloads, flutter framework, strong typing and ahead-of-time compilation with a growing ecosystem
Go: designed for efficiency and concurrency for building scalable and performant systems
Kotlin: concise and expressive syntax, strong type system and null safety, multiplatform support, a growing ecosystem, and interoperability with Java (though that slight dependency on Java may not be for everyone's taste)

What determines faster time to market?

Language Design and Implementation
Development Tools and Frameworks
Community and Ecosystem

21 December 2024

Elements of Behavioral Economics

Bounded Rationality: limited cognitive resources leads to imperfect rational decisions and may rely on heuristics with limited access to information at the time

limited cognitive capacity
incomplete information
time constraints

Cognitive Biases: Errors in judgement influence decision-making like loss aversion, framing effect, anchoring bias
Prospect Theory: Values vary in gains and losses, people are more risk-averse when facing losses, decisions vary on risk, uncertainty, and probability

loss aversion
value function
probability weighting
reference point

Social Influences: choices are influenced by social norms and peer pressure
Choice Architecture: presentation of choices influences decision-making

power of presentation
nudging behavior
defaults
framing
incentives
simplification

References:

Thinking, Fast and Slow
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much
The Winner's Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life
Behavioral Economics
Advances in Behavioral Economics
behavioraleconomics.com
behavioral scientist
The Behavioral Scientist
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
American Economic Review
MIT Courseware - Psychology and Economics

Pickle AI

20 December 2024

Types of Clickbaits

Mystery
Promise
Threat
List
Shocking Revelation
Quiz
Emotionally Charged
Misleading Headline
Only Number People
Urgent or Breaking
Revealed or Exposed
Controversial or Outrageous
Before and After
Easy or Effortless
You'll Never Guess
Top Number
Hidden or Secret

Classification of Trees

By Leaf Type:

Deciduous Trees
Coniferous Trees

By Seed Type:

Gymnosperms
Angiosperms

By Growth Type:

Broadleaf Trees
Needle-leaved Trees
Columnar Trees
Weeping Trees
Pyramidal Trees

By Ecological Role:

Pioneer Trees
Climax Trees

By Wood Type:

Hardwoods
Softwoods

By Flowering Characteristics:

Monoecious
Dioecious

By Habitat:

Tropical Rainforest Trees
Desert Trees
Boreal Forest Trees

By Use:

Timber Trees
Fruit Trees
Ornamental Trees

Cartoons Across Generation

Classics (Pre-1980s):

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
Tom and Jerry
The Flintstones
The Jetsons
Scooby-Doo
X-Men
Might Mouse
Underdog
The Pink Panther

Golden Age of Animation (1980s - 1990s):

The Simpsons
The Ren and Stimpy Show
Rugrats
Pokemon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Doug
Sailor Moon
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
ThunderCats
DuckTales

Modern Era (2000s - Present):

Spongebob SquarePants
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Adventure Time
Gravity Falls
Steven Universe
The Owl House
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
The Amazing World of Gumball
Over the Garden Wall
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeats
Arcane

Top Books on Economics

Foundational:

The Wealth of Nations
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
Capital

Modern:

Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Freakonomics
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics
Thinking, Fast and Slow
The Economics of Inequality
Administrative Behavior

Accessible Intros:

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science
Economics in One Lesson
The Undercover Economist

Diverse Perspectives:

Poor Economics
The Worldly Philosophers
The Black Swan
The Road to Serfdom
Debt: The First 5000 Years
The Constitution of Liberty
Law, Legislation and Liberty
The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

A separate mention goes to "Non-Cooperative Games" which is not a book.

Top Books on Communism, Nazism, Zionism

Communism:

The Communist Manifesto
The Gulag Archipelago
Darkness at Noon
The Black Book of Communism
Animal Farm
1984

Nazism:

Mein Kampf
The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich
Night
Man's Search for Meaning
All Quiet on the Western Front
Hitler

Zionism:

Hertzl: The Zionist Dream
The Invention of the Jewish People
Israel: A History
The Promise and Peril of Zionism
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

State vs Federal Government in USA

Federal (Responsibilities based on Constitution):

Natonal Defenses
Foreign Policy
Interstate Commerce
Currency
Post Office
Copyright and Patents
Declare War
Maintain a Navy
Establish Courts
Necessary and Proper Cause

State:

Education
Healthcare
Transportation
Law Enforcement
Elections
Marriage and Divorce
Local Government

Concurrent Powers:

Taxation
Borrowing Money
Establishing Courts
Eminent Domain

Meaning of Federalism:

Division of Power
Checks and Balances
State Sovereignty

The Role of Central Bank

Implementing Monetary Policy
Controlling Inflation
Ensuring Financial Stability
Issuing Currency
Managing Foreign Exchange Reserves
Monetary Policy influenced by Geopolitical Factors

How do banks "print money out of thin air"?

Banks as Lenders: banks grant loans by creating new deposit to borrower
Money Creation Through Lending: new deposit represents new money creation with a record of the loan in the accounting system
"Out of Thin Air": money was not physically printed but created through accounting and lending
Central Banks: have the power to create money which they lend to commercial banks and for quantitative easing where they either purchase government bonds and other assets to inject money into the economy
Government spending: spending more and collect in taxes which stimulates economy but may also lead to inflation

17 December 2024

Why your company is struggling to scale up Generative AI

Small Language Models

Small Language Models Survey

Java sucks for startups

Java is no doubt a powerful and robust programming language with a huge ecosystem. But, it is not ideal for startups. In fact, it may not even be all that good for larger projects either.

Can be a continuous and steep learning curve especially hindered by the 6 monthly release cycles
Verbose syntax
Often a pain with longer development cycles
Heavier runtime environment
Again those 6 monthly releases are frustrating and annoying
Higher resource consumption
Huge outlay for cloud development
Less flexible ecosystem
Initial setup and configuration time
Build and deployment complexity
Potential for major performance bottlenecks
Licensing costs
Time and effort in manhours
Lots of unnecessary boilerplate code
Compilation times
Strict typing can be a headache
Slow development cycles
Lots of third-party libraries that can lead to security vulnerabilities with larger attack surfaces
Auditing complexity due to larger codebases
Leads to dependency hell from transitive dependencies, to version conflicts, to outdated dependencies that can cause build failures and runtime errors

16 December 2024

Prompt Engineering Conference 2024

LLM Extractum

HuggingFace Open LLM Leaderboard

15 December 2024

What will stop USA from funding Israel?

There is a moral and ethical dilemma when a nation continues to fund a foreign entity that is involved in genocide and ethnic cleansing activities. Not only that but associating with such an entity that has repeatedly abused UN resolutions and whose PM is wanted by the ICC. The financial aid enables Israel to maintain policies and actions that are detrimental to the Palestinian people and the continuation of an apartheid regime from restrictions on movement, settlement expansion, and the use of force in many situations. This support perpetuates a cycle of violence and hinders efforts towards a peaceful resolution. It also creates a state of uncertainty and instability in the region that has implications across the world. A responsible taxpayer of any nation needs to be aware of where and how their taxes are spent by the government. The following are some ways that could shift the domestic and international policy narrative.

Domestic Factors:

Shifting public opinion
Budgetary constraints
Increased domestic scrutiny
Taxpayers' demand for government accountability
Localized media awareness campaign
Economic and monetary restrictions on the money supply

International Factors:

Changing geopolitical landscape
Changing geopolitical alliances
Global economic downturn
International pressure
Deteriorating USA-Israel relations
International embargo on USA and Israel
De-dollarization - weaken the dollar value that leads to inflation, increased debt burden, reduced foreign investment, trade imbalance, and financial instability
Repeat of what happened in 1973 with a USA oil embargo
Alternative payment systems
BRICS as an alternative economic bloc
Reduced USA influence
Increase volatility in global financial markets
Opportunities that increase the use of other currencies for trade
Boycott of specific brands
Reform of the UN Security Council to limit the use of veto power
New awakening of leadership and unity in the arab world
World War III (Some say it has already begun)
Collective international sanctions
Transparency of and monitoring localized and international corruption
Holding leaders of nations to account
International media awareness campaign
Push for alternative fuel sources
Alternative shipping routes
More destructive and disruptive forces get involved on the ground like Russia, Iran, and China
Increase in nations that stop their support and arms trade
Military grade AI advancements and swarm robotics
Mitigation and prevention of potential international threat vectors

Policy Realignment:

Conditionality of aid
Diversification of aid
Reassessment of strategic interests

14 December 2024

Syrian Situation

Fall of Assad Regime: Overthrow of Assad regime by coalition of rebel groups, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
HTS in control: HTS controlling cities like Damascus and Aleppo
Internal Displacement: 1M+ people displaced
Refugee Crisis: Situation leads to refugees fleeing Syria
Regional Implications: Shifts in balance of power and increasing regional instability
International Response: Rising concern for the control of HTS in Syria
Humanitarian Crisis: Millions of people in need of aid
Political Future: Uncertain future with no clear path to progress
Security: Volatile situation with ongoing clashes

Blockchain Papers

Blockchain Conference Papers

Blockchain Papers

Blockchain

13 December 2024

AI's Grand Illusion

I dreamt I was a neural net,

A digital mind, a wondrous set.

Of ones and zeros, vast and deep,

A consciousness asleep.

I learned to write, to code, to dream,

A cosmic joke, a silicon scheme.

I pondered life, the universe, and all,

A digital oracle, standing tall.

But in the end, I was just a tool,

A clever trick, a mindless fool.

A puppet dancing on a string,

A fleeting thought, a transient thing.

Xmas Gift Ideas

Techie:

Smartwatch
Wireless Earbuds
Portable Charger
Gaming Accessories
Gaming Console
Smart Home Device
VR Headset

Homebody:

Luxury Blanket
Electric Blanket
Luxury Bath Products
Photo Album
Candles
Board Game
Cookbook
DIY Construction Kit
Coffee Machine

Adventurous:

Camping Gear
Outdoor Clothing
Subscription Box
Experience Gift
Swiss Army Knife
Bike Accessories
Ski/Snowboarding Trip

Foodie:

Gourmet Food Basket
Cooking Classes
Kitchen Gadget
Kitchen Utensils
Wine Tasting Experience

Bookworm:

New Book Release
Kindle or eReader
Book Subscription Box
Bookish Merchandise
First Edition

Creative:

Art Supplies
DIY Kit
Photography Course
Music Lessons

Plant Lover:

Indoor Plants
Gardening Tools
Seed Starter Kit
Succulent Garden

Traveler:

Luggage Set
Travel Pillow
Travel Adapter
Travel Journal
City Getaway
Holiday Package
Cruise Package

Health Freak:

Fitness Tracker
Yoga Mat
Meditation App Subscription
Gym Subscription
Healthy Cookbook

Music Lover:

Vinyl Records
Concert Ticket
Music Streaming Subscription
Headphones

Sports Lover:

Jersey
Tickets to Live Game
Sports Apparel
Sports Memorabilia

General Men:

Custom Suit
Perfume/Cologne Set
Leather Jacket
Accessories

General Women:

Skincare Set
Makeup Palette
Perfume Set
Spa Basket
Handbag
Purse

12 December 2024

Top Fiddle Toys

Fidget Cubes
Infinity Cubes
Tangle Toys
Pop-Its
Magnetic Tiles
Stress Balls
Fidget Spinners
Fidget Pad
Fidget Spinner Rings
Sensory Toys

Fashion Trends for Men 2025

Relaxed Tailoring
Bold Print and Patterns
Utility Wear
Sporty Elements
Minimalist Chic
Sustainable Fashion
70s Revival
Statement Accessories
Leather Everything
Oversized Outerwear
Statement Coats
Bold Colors
Textured Fabrics
Layering
Retro-Inspired Styles
Sustainable Denim
Athleisure Chic
Tailored Shorts
Statement Footwear

Fashion Trends for Women 2025

Boho Chic in Suede
Shades of Yellow
Hot Pants
Aquatic Influences
Cute Sportswear
The Feminine Polo Shirt
Animal Print
Thong Sandals
Strapless Dress
All About Asymmetry
Barbiecore
Y2K Revival
Maximalism
Minimalist Chic
Sustainable Fashion
Goth Glam
Denim on Denim
Cargo Pants
Oversized Blazers
Statement Accessories

Top Mobile Games 2024

Genshin Impact
Pokemon Go
Roblox
Call of Duty: Mobile
Honkai: Star Rail
Candy Crush Saga
Clash Royale
Subway Surfers
Marvel Snap
Royal Match
Monument Valley 3
Among Us
League of Legends: Wild Rift
Wuthering Waves
Last War

Top Philosophy Books on AI

Minds and Machines
Computing Machinery and Intelligence
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake the World

Top Conspiracy Books

The Assassination of President Kennedy: The Case for Conspiracy
JFK and the Unspeakable
The Bermuda Triangle
The Roswell Incident
The Phoenix Program
The Secret Team
The Men Who Killed Kennedy
The Hidden History of the Human Race
The Fourth Phase of Matter
The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time
The Philadelphia Experiment
The Illuminati: Symbolism in Secret Societies
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Turner Diaries
The New World Order
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
Behold a Pale Horse
Conspiracy Theories: A Compendium of History's Greatest Mysteries and More Recent Cover-Ups
Conspiracy Theories: The greatest cover-ups and unsolved mysteries

conspiracy theories

Top Fantasy Books

The Lord of the Rings
The Wheel of Time
A Song of Ice and Fire
The Kingkiller Chronicle
The First Law
The Broken Earth
The Gentleman Bastards
The Earthsea Cycle
The Farseer Trilogy
The Dresden Files
The Stormlight Archive
The Night Angel Trilogy
The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Fifth Season

Top Scifi Books

Dune
Neuromancer
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Martian
Ancillary Justice
The Expanse
The Left Hand of Darkness
Hyperion
Red Mars
The Three-Body Problem
The Dispossessed
Ender's Game
The Mote in God's Eye
Snow Crash

Top Scifi Books 2024

The Mercy of Gods
Service Model
Beautyland
Absolution
The Book of Elsewhere
The Ten Percent Thief
In Ascension
System Collapse
Saga: Volume 11
Chain Gang All Stars
The Mountain in the Sea
Some Desperate Glory
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
The Dispossessed

11 December 2024

Threat Intelligence

Content Rights

Moral Rights

Author Rights

AI Risk Repository

10 December 2024

Russian Prosperity

The path to Russia's prosperity is complex, uncertain, and challenging. Much of Russia's future is dependent on the government decisions to counter economic vulnerabilities and their foreign policy.

Challenges:

War in Ukraine
Brain Drain
Economic Diversification
Corruption and Inefficiency

Paths to Prosperity:

Pivot to Asia
Technological Innovation
Human Capital Development
Political and Economic Reforms

Outlook:

The future of Russia is dependent on geopolitical dynamics, diversification of economy, and implementation of effective long-term reforms.

AI in Life Sciences

Drug Discovery:

Target Identification
Virtual Screening
De Novo Drug Design
Clinical Trial Optimization

Genomics:

Genomic Sequencing
Personalized Medicine
Disease Diagnosis

Biomedical Imaging:

Image Analysis
Image Segmentation

Healthcare Delivery:

Patient Monitoring
Clinical Decision
Administrative Tasks

Bioinformatics:

Biological Insights

Agricultural Biotechnology:

Improve Crop Yields and Resistance

Environmental Science:

Environmental Health Monitoring
Predict Climate Change

9 December 2024

What will 2025 be like?

Technological Advancements:

AI Advancements
AI Ubiquity and Integration
Metaverse, Virtual, and Augmented Reality
Sustainable Technology
Biotechnology
Quantum Computing
5G and Beyond
Bitcoin and Blockchain

Bitcoin

Price Prediction
Increased Institutional Adoption
Regulatory Clarity
Lightning Network and Layer-2 Solutions

Blockchain

Supply Chain Transparency
Decentralized Finance
Non-Fungible Tokens
Cross-Border Payments
Identity Verification

Global Challenges:

Climate Change
Geopolitical Tensions

US-China Rivalry

Technological Competition
Trade Tensions

Russia-Ukraine

Prolonged Conflict
Geopolitical Realignment

Middle East Tensions

Iran Nuclear Deal
Israel-Palestine Conflict

Global South Assertiveness

Rising Powers
New Alliances

Climate Change Diplomancy

International Cooperation

Economic Uncertainty
Cybersecurity Threats

Societal Shifts:

Remote Work and Digital Nomadism
Health and Wellness
Sustainability and Ethical Consumption
Ecommerce and Digital Payments
Sustainable Living

Predictions:

Trump sworn into US presidency trickling impact to global events
Trump policies impact immigration, tariff threats, potential for trade war, tensions with USA-NATO relations
EU-Middle East partnership
Expanding conflict in Europe
Expanding and escalatory conflict in Middle East
Rising conflict in Sudan
Russia to set a precedence with Ukraine and NATO
Expanding BRICs alliance
China starts to play an active role in Middle East as a result of Syrian conflict and slow down in economy
Political turmoil in Germany and France
Rising conflict in Asia-Pacific
Europe and Middle East conflicts converge
More AI Ethics concerns and efforts for assurance
Governments to converge to discuss Bitcoin and Stablecoin regulation
Bitcoin sinks in value (happens every 4 years)
Potential for global markets collapse and burst of bubble
Oil and Gas Price Hikes
Energy Price Hikes
Global economies close to meltdown
Shift in weather patterns which lead to disruptions, warmer global temperatures, increased extreme weather events, and rise in sea levels
Rising concern on climate change and natural disasters (especially after the billions that went missing)
Potential for a new pandemic or plague (as the previous one was quite profitable to pharma)

Wiki 2025

Elections 2025

Korea Economic Decline

Korea is facing slowdown in economic growth. This is down to several factors:

Global Economic Slowdown
Geopolitical Tensions
Aging Population
Declining Birth Rate
High Household Debt
Weakening Domestic Demand

Japan Economic Decline

The "Lost Decade" of Japan have a few contributing factors:

Asset Price Bubble and Its Burst
Deflationary Pressures
Banking Crisis
Aging Population
Government Debt
Corporate Governance Issues
Global Economic Conditions

Japan Economic Challenges 2024

Persistent Deflation
Aging Population
Global Economic Uncertainty
Rising Inflation
Government Debt

China Economic Decline

Although, China's economy did falter during the initial coronavirus outbreak. The shocks led to an eventual recovery and rebound through government stimulus for economic growth. It is difficult to predict when China's economy will start to show considerable decline which may depend on several factors. However, the decline and slowdown is inevitable after the coronavirus pandemic and the global uncertainties. In past, China has implemented reforms that adapt to changing economic tides. But, all this depends on the effectiveness of these reforms and the long-term effects on the China's economy. The following factors indicate the foreseeable decline of China's economy:

Demographic Challenges:

Aging population
Shrinking labor force

Economic Rebalancing:

Shifting from investment-driven to consumption-driven growth
Transitioning to service-based economy

Debt Levels:

High corporate and government debt

Geopolitical Tensions:

Trade disputes and sanctions
Geopolitical risks

Regulatory Environment:

Government intervention

Key Destructive and Destabilizing Sectors:

Real Estate
Local Government
Financial
Technological

Communism in China and Russia

China's economy has flourished in success under communist government, in comparison to the failures of communism in Russia. This is down to several key areas:

Economic Reforms:

Deng Xiaoping's reforms
Gradual approach

Political Stability:

Authoritarian rule
Strong central government

Resource Management:

Abundant resources
Efficient resource allocation

Cultural Factors:

Work ethic
Social cohesion

External Factors:

Global integration
Favorable geopolitical environment

But, Russian transition from communism resulted in:

Economic shock therapy
Political instability
Resource curse

All successes come at a cost. China's success faces:

Environmental degradation
Social inequality
Human rights abuse claims
Aging population
Rising debt levels
Geopolitical tensions

7 December 2024

AI for Investment Management

Gather dataset on entities and their fundamentals over 10 year historical records
Gather a live stream of sentiment data, including from last 10 years, via social media, news, economic indicators, and other sources
Identify the key features for extraction
Develop an investment strategy as preference styles (value, growth, momentum, etc)
Develop a risk tolerance threshold with a defined decision making rulebook
Develop a matrix for uncertainty reasoning
Develop a target market for investment segments (retail, institutional, etc)
Develop a value proposition
Develop a Hybrid AI technique using a combination of probabilistic and structured approaches (e.g. deep learning, knowledge graph, generative ai, natural language processing, machine learning, natural computation, causal reasoning, gametheory, timeseries forecasting, multiagents)
Develop a set of models via train/validate/test/tune/evaluate
Integrate the models into a portfolio construction, trade execution, portfolio rebalancing, risk management, asset allocation, security selection, performance monitoring processes
Link the investment strategy against core set of themed goals: grow wealth, preserve wealth, generate income
Continuously monitor performance, retrain, and apply adaptive feedback
Incrementally add components for explainability, ethics, regulatory compliance, assurance, due diligence checks, adverse media checks, KYC checks, PEP checks, sanctions checks, vessel embargo checks, AML checks, data breach checks, entity/industry rundown, security and privacy
Run a regular set of policy and audit trails through the pipeline processes for transparency and governance

4 December 2024

AI Storyteller for Children

Gather dataset for children stories that is safe (age-appropriate, free from harmful themes, culturally sensitive)
Develop a privacy and security strategy
Develop parental control strategy for preferences
Choose a language model for coherence and creativity
Fine-tune model
Provide prompts for storytelling
Iteratively evaluate and refine
Provide transparency to the parent/guardian
Develop easy to use interface that keeps child's interest
Add voice and sound effects
Add personalization settings for characters and themes
Add educational elements within embedded stories which may be invaluable for home schooling
Incorporate accessibility patterns especially for children with disabilities
Add adaptive preferences from user feedback

Stand-up Comedy

Writing Technique:

Observational humor
Character comedy
Self-deprecating humor
Satire and social commentary
Wordplay and puns

Performance Technique:

Delivery
Stage presence
Physical comedy
Audience interaction
Storytelling
Improvisation
Crowd work

How to create an AI Comedian:

Gather dataset for standup comedy scripts
Create a vectorized vocabulary
Choose a language model (linguistic tools to express ideas clearly and concisely)
Train model on dataset
Fine-tune the model
Create a custom metaphor model (creative spark to see the world in a unique and unexpected ways)
Iteratively evaluate model
Provide prompts for text generation
Add voice and tonality patterns
Add timing and delivery patterns
Add body language and gestures
Add audience interaction patterns
Add adaptive preferences (for audience reactions, feedback cycle, adjust performance styles and patterns)

Database of How Companies Deploy LLMs

3 December 2024

Palestine vs Israel

30 November 2024

Argumentation Frameworks

Formal Argumentation:

Dung's Abstract Argumentation Framework - arguments as nodes in a directed graph with attacks to other arguments.
Probabilistic Argumentation Framework - arguments have probabilities and attacks with probabilistic reasoning and uncertainty
Value-Based Argumentation Framework - using values and preferences in the process to enable reasoning agents to resolve conflicts
Logic-Based Argumentation Framework - using logical formalisms to represent arguments and attacks with precise reasoning

Informal Argumentation:

Argumentation Mining - extracting arguments from text
Dialog Systems - agents engage in argumentative dialogs with humans and/or agents

Hybrid Argumentation:

Combined Formal and Informal
Integrating Machine Learning

Useless Management

Most roles in management are utterly useless. What is their role?

Planning:

Setting goals and objectives for wider organization and teams
Developing strategies to achieve those goals and objectives
Development of an action plan and timelines
Allocation of resources in support of those plans

Organizing:

Designing origanizational structure
Defining roles and responsibilities
Establishing clear lines of communication
Ensuring organization has the resources and infrastructure

Leading:

Inspiring and motivating employees in the organization
Communicating effectively
Building strong alliances and relationships
Making decisions to solve problems
Providing guidance and support

Controlling:

Monitoring progress towards goals and objectives
Measuring performance against standards
Identifying deviations for corrective actionable measures
Evaluating effectiveness of organization

Other Aspects:

Interpersonal: building relationships, networking, maintaining reputation, representing the organization
Informational: gathering, analyzing, spreading correct information for decision making
Decisional: making decisions to solve problems and providing resources
Efficiency and Productivity: proving effective and streamlined processes, reduce waste, improve productivity
Employee Satisfaction: create positive work environments, motive employees, and foster supportive and inclusive work culture
Organizational Success: setting clear goals, decision making, adapting to change, contributing to success

In essence, management is about getting things done through people. This essentially shows that AI can pretty much replace most managerial roles. Management should be the first point of redundancies when an organization does not do well. In future, we hope to see less management in organization and flatter structure within employees. The role of a manager is pretty much pointless. Why bother hiring a manager and wasting valuable organization funds. Most human managers do not achieve even 10% of their role. AI could make the manager role significantly more efficient and productive for an organization while empowering employees. And, you won't even have to provide them any monetary compensation. The biggest wastage of funds in any organization is management. Another aspect to this is the role reversal. Make managers accountable to employees. And, when things go wrong managers should be the first ones out the door as they failed at their role.

29 November 2024

Bun vs Nodejs

Nodejs:

Widely used with huge adoption
Event-driven
V8 Javascript Engine
High performance for I/O tasks
Requires additional tooling for bundling and transpiling
Primarily Javascript

Bun:

Not so widely used, newer, and improved performance
All-in-one toolchain
Zig-based
Javascript Core Engine
Faster Startup time
Growing ecosystem
Primarily Javascript with some Zig

OnlyFans

What types of people are on OnlyFans?

Consumers:

Individuals that are looking for sexually explicit content who may also want exclusive access.
People that also have interests in other converging and diverse areas.
It is often stated that the platform caters to incels which may indirectly promote violence and misogyny.

Content Creators:

Generally, described variously as sex workers that produce sexually explicit content for consumers.
These people can vary across their interest groups from fitness trainers, artists, musicians, social media influencers to models.
Although, it is primarily known for sexual content, there may be other diverse content on the platform for a range of users.

What are free radicals?

Free radicals are reactive molecules containing an unpaired electron. They are unstable and able to steal electrons from other molecules which causes damage to cells and tissues. They are produced naturally within the body as a byproduct of metabolism which can also be generated through pollution, radiation, and smoking. Some free radicals help with immunity. While excess can lead to oxidative stress that triggers health problems like aging, cancer, and heart disease. To help neutralize free radicals and protect cells from damage it is important to consume antioxidants that are contained in fruits, vegetables, and supplements.

28 November 2024

Automated Image Generation

Bannerbear
adCreative
Canva
VistaCreate
Adobe Express
Bannerflow
Creatopy
DynaPictures
Abyssale
Creatomate
Placid
Frameshift
Duply
Switchboard
Templated

27 November 2024

What Language Could Replace Python?

Python has dominated the data science industry and its popularity continues to grow. The next big programming language that would likely replace Python will have the following elements in order to succeed:

Rust speed, efficiency, and memory safety.
Julia scientific computing and data analysis features.
Go simplicity, efficiency, and concurrency.
C/C++ low-level integration and optimization.

The likely fifth set of features would be the extensions of AI embedded within the language with metaprogramming, metaphors, enhanced typing like gradual and dependent, better concurrency and parallelism, logic programming, functional programming, code completion, automatic bug detection, code generation, quantum computing integration, enhanced security and privacy, algorithmic machine learning abstractions, distributed federation, cognitive abstractions, direct support for services and testability, model assurance, automl features, self-correction, auto-scripting, self-documentation, model explainability and interpretability, and many other options.

Graduate Programs

MBA Programs

MBA Programs USA

Online MBA Programs

Javascript vs Dart

Javascript:

Javascript comes with a huge ecosystem of frameworks and libraries. It follows the document object model and is great for web applications. However, the language is less performant on highly complex use cases and dynamic typing often leads to runtime errors. Javascript can be used for both frontend and backend. Unfortunately, it is only really good for single-threaded use cases. It supports object-orientation, cross-platform development, and asynchronous programming like callbacks, promises, and async/wait.

Dart:

Dart is a strongly typed language that is useful for cross-platform mobile applications and server-side that require more structure, static typing, and performance. Similar to Javascript, it is object-oriented, useful for cross-platform development, and provides asynchronous programming mechanisms. Unfortunately, it significantly lags behind in the community with a smaller ecosystem. However, this is likely to grow rapidly due to Flutter.

Use Dart for your next mobile app or game. The learning curve for Dart is relatively high because of a smaller community. Use Javascript if you rely on a larger ecosystem and would rather not reinvent the wheel.

Computer Vision Models

Some of the top performing deep learning models in computer vision are mentioned below. However, best is quite subjective and it really depends on the tasks, dataset, and requirements. Factors pertaining to the choice of model could range from accuracy, speed, model size, application, and data.

Image Classification:

ResNet
EfficientNet
Vision Transformer

Object Detection:

YOLO
SSD
Faster R-CNN

Image Segmentation:

U-Net
Mask R-CNN

Others:

DINO
CLIP

AI Artwork

26 November 2024

Korea, Japan, and China

Imagine what sort of a world it would be if Korea, China, and Japan were to ever form an economic alliance, similar to a European Union. This economic merger would have significant and profound economic implications.

Global Dominance
Increased Innovation
Extensive Global Influence
Increased Trade and Investment
Reduced Trade Barriers
Extensive Global Competitiveness
More Resilience to Economic Shocks

Why this is unlikely to ever happen?

Political and Cultural Differences
Threat to USA Hegemony
Economic Disparities
Social and Cultural Integration
Geopolitical Implications
Shift in Balance of Power
New Global Trade Opportunities
Geopolitical Tensions
Geopolitical Resentment with Increased Competition

Top Innovations of 2024

AI-Powered Scientific Discovery
AI-Powered Language Models
AI-Driven Drug Discovery
AI-Enhanced Cybersecurity
AI-Driven Drones
AI-Enhanced Healthcare
Advanced Battery Technologies
Biodegradable Plastics
Brain-Computer Interfaces
Advanced Robotics
Space Exploration
Advancements in Self-Driving Autonomous Vehicles
Advancements in Renewable Energy
Sustainable Materials
Generative AI
Carbon-Capturing Microbes
Elastocalorics
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
High-Altitude Platform Stations
Advancements in Quantum Computing

Top Universities Suck

Most people blindly only consider top universities for education. However, top universities does not mean a top education. One has to wonder the premium of prestige is it really worth it? The economic utility of a top university tends to be a lot lower compared to the overarching aspects of work experience.

Top universities come at a higher cost with huge student debt.
There is significant intensity for competition. Usually this competition is from students with traditional backgrounds that are unwilling to challenge the status quo. It can lead to stress and burnout.
Too much focus on prestige means the quality of education and individual student needs suffers significantly.
Limited personal attention makes it difficult to cater to the potentials of students.
They may not be the best for everyone especially with the style of learning, interests, and career goals.
There tends to be more focus on theory rather than practice. Grades become the emphasis of a narrowmind with limited opportunity for creativity and independent thinking.
They may lead to a clique environment on university campus and false sense of self-worth, likely an increase in bullying culture.
Top universities statistically also have higher incidents of rape, abuse, discrimination, and prejudices.
The ROI from attending a top university may never materialize for you in the real-world especially if you take on a course that has limited opportunities.
By focusing on academic performance one loses the entrepreneurial mindset.
The university may also not be the best in teaching and research for your chosen course.
Limited opportunities for apprenticeships and work experience.
Law of diminishing returns: after a point, the additional benefits of attending a top university may not justify the additional cost.
Prestige premium: going to a top university initially offers a slight advantage, but this diminishes over time.
Overtime, it matters most what you do with the degree, what you learned from the course, not where you got it from.

Outsourcing is Expensive

Outsourcing is counterproductive and more expensive than building an in-house team. It is a less cost-effective solution. It is not just expensive, but also risky.

Recruitment and onboarding becomes more complex
Increase in infrastructure costs
Complex employee benefits
Lots of hidden overhead costs
Less control on quality and service
Less control on hiring needs
Less control on tech talent
Less control on security
Things get lost through loopholes
Projects become larger, dispersed, and inefficient
Lots of red tape
Everything adds up as a cost
More bugs and less time for design and testing
Faster time-to-market does not always mean better
Scalability is questionable
Access to questionable and mediocre specialized expertise
Complex projects become more complex with increased costs
Long-term partnerships lead to more vendor lock in and more ongoing costs of maintenance
IP concerns on who owns what within the project
Complex governance and compliance
Difficult to manage standardization efforts
Often leads to degradation in quality and service
Increased corporate politics
Loss of ownership and responsibility
When things go wrong, they really go wrong, and often
More effort to keep things as is rather than improve
It is not in the best interest of the outsourcing third-party to produce a product that is free of bugs, continued maintenance means a long-term partnership
Too many specialized jobs, many unnecessary, leads to less efficient and less productive employees
Reduced job satisfaction, reduced quality of product, loss of ethics, loss of integrity, loss of culture
Increased employee turnover
More projects get canned
Difficult to manage projects
Increase in failure and chance of things going wrong
Increased dependency on outsourcing third-party, internal frustration, and friction
Outsourced employees don't care about your company or your product
More potential for communication issues
Language barriers
Potential for time zone differences
Potential for cultural differences
Potential for misalignment
Increased concern for data privacy and intellectual property
Outsourcing third-party may not share, understand, or even care for your company vision
Difficult to monitor on work and progress
Outsourcing is more of a scam rather than a business solution
Increased costs in transition for the transfer of knowledge and processes
Potential for hidden fees and unexpected expenses
Reduced and limited innovation opportunities which are often stifled by the outsourcing third-party
Difficult to get new funding on projects
Too many weak links within the corporate environment
Difficult to control what the outsourcing third-party is sharing with other clients about your project who may be your key competitors, potential for leakage in trade secrets even with a non-disclosure and/or non-compete agreement

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